2014 Grant Recipients

The Bozeman Area Community Foundation is connecting people who care to causes that matter in the Bozeman area. On March 31st, $20,000 in grant funding was distributed through a competitive grants process to 25 local nonprofits. The Bozeman Area Community Foundation nearly doubled last year’s funding in this grant cycle in an effort to support and promote the valuable work of the Bozeman area’s instrumental nonprofit sector. Since 1999, the Foundation has grown its assets to nearly $1 million and distributed more than $173,000 in grants to 75+ local nonprofit organizations.

Anchor Ministry Center

Belgrade Community Library

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County

Big Sky Youth Empowerment

Bozeman Bike Kitchen

Bozeman Chapter - Montana Association for the Blind

Bozeman Schools Foundation

Bridgercare

Child Care Connections

Children's Museum of Bozeman

Community Health Partners

Community Mediation Center

Eagle Mount - Bozeman

Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture

Gallatin Valley Farm to School

Gallatin Valley Land Trust

Gallatin Valley YMCA

HAVEN

Human Resource Development Council, IX

Kaleidoscope Theater

Reach Inc.

Run Dog Run

Sage Gardeners

Share of Gallatin Valley Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, Inc.

Thrive

Anchor Ministry Center

God’s Garden is a 56,000 square foot garden. In 5 years we have grown and harvested over 110,000 pounds and delivered to the Gallatin Valley Food Bank. In 2013, we grew and harvested 36,941 pounds of fresh food for low-income community members. Anchor Ministry Center is an all volunteer organization. We have no over head cost. All money received goes to improve God’s Garden, so we can increase our harvest. This funding will help us purchase 30 18-Gallon Rubber Maid Ruff Neck totes to hold the produce harvest and to transport to the Food Bank.

Belgrade Community Library

Stories to Grow is a volunteer-based outreach program from the Belgrade Community Library that delivers story times to children in the community that have limited access to the library. Trained volunteers visit licensed daycare centers and preschools once a month from October through April to present theme-based story time programs.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Gallatin County

We match a carefully screened adult volunteer (Big) with a child (Little) in need of a mentor. Highly trained professional staff create and support these matches between Bigs and Littles through monthly check-ins that address relationship development, child safety, child development concerns, and to provide other resources for the Big, Little, and Little’s guardian. In addition to this help, BBBSGC staff, provides ongoing volunteer training for Bigs to help them be a positive role model to the child and make the experience fun and memorable for everyone involved. The extensive efforts made by the professional staff results in long-lasting, strong relationships between Bigs and Littles. We holds ourself accountable for children in its program to achieve measurable outcomes, such as educational success; avoidance of risky behaviors; and higher aspirations, greater confidence and better relationships.

Big Sky Youth Empowerment

BYEP is a mentor based program working with at-risk youth within the communities of Bozeman and Belgrade. We will have over 90 students enrolled in the 2014 program. Youth begin our program in their 8th grade year and have the option to continue through 12th grade. Our primary goal is to help participants create actionable plans leading to graduation from high school and prepare them to then obtain employment or entry into post-secondary education. A main component of our program, are life skills workshops covering topics such as conflict resolution, interpersonal relationships, substance abuse, healthy choices, life after high school/independent living and resume building. Each participant attends a 3 hour workshop every week. BYEP mentors and program managers pick up each participant (in Belgrade and Bozeman) and transport them to and from workshops. Our program is scholarship based, thus participants apply for the program and if accepted, pay nothing to participate.

Bozeman Bike Kitchen

Our goal is to receive help in funding a purpose-built, sloping bicycle display rack to showcase our refurbished bicycles that are distributed to citizens of Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley community through our “Earn-a-Bike” and “Community Cycles” programs. The bicycles are available for free or at low cost to to anyone with no restrictions on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status. It eliminates quality product from entering the waste stream and the riding of a bicycle promotes good health.

Bozeman Chapter - Montana Association for the Blind

Often the aging process includes vision loss. When the eye doctors can no longer help it is often necessary to purchase equipment in order to stay independent. This equipment is often costly. The Low Vision Equipment Demonstration Project provides people suffering from vision loss an opportunity to personally examine a wide range of visual aids ranging in price from hundreds to thousands of dollars to determine if a certain item will work for them.

In the five years since the project began, we have received over 300 referrals from local ophthalmologists. People attending our Demonstration Project are screened to determine the level of magnification needed and shown a variety of tools that are available to help them do tasks they may be struggling with. The project has been met with much enthusiasm and gratitude by the clients who are thrilled to get information that will help them do the things that are meaningful to them.

Bozeman Schools Foundation

The Bozeman Schools Foundation is facilitating a $3.5 million capital campaign to revitalize the oldest, largest and most utilized performing arts space in our community. Our mission is to create a safe, accessible, efficient and comfortable facility in support of K-12 students, artists and attendees. This community investment will benefit our students and educators as well as address the needs of our numerous local performing arts groups. The Willson Auditorium serves the entire Gallatin Valley as the largest available performance facility next to the Montana State University’s field house.

Bridgercare

Bridgercare performs roughly 1,400 pap smears per year. When one of those tests comes back abnormal, there are a variety of options patients have for follow up. A colposcopy is frequently one of those options. A colposcopy is a way of looking a patient’s cervix through a special magnifying device called a colposcope. The colposcope allows health care providers to find abnormalities which cannot be seen by the eye alone, as well as provide more information cell changes.

In the past, Bridgercare has had to refer patients to other healthcare facilities in the area to get a colposcopy. We are now expanding our services to include colposcopies at our clinic so patients do not have to be referred elsewhere. Since we are also a non-profit, we will be able to offer this service at lower costs for our patients.

Child Care Connections

Involving children in gardening activities provides valuable opportunities to enjoy the spring and summer weather while instilling a love of the outdoors, nature and nutritious food. Nurturing a plant helps children learn to nurture themselves, teaches responsibility through plant care, and builds self-esteem through accomplishment. Child Care Connections (CCC) is proposing a project to allow us to provide “Gardening Fun for Kids“ kits to area child care providers. The gardening kits will be developed by CCC staff and will offer licensed providers the choice of either a container gardening kit or raised bed gardening kit. The kits will include all the materials needed for a gardening project and will be appropriate for young children with adult supervision, or school age children looking for a bit of a challenge. The gardening kits will also include math (i.e. watering charts) and science (i.e. seed germination) lesson plans, materials and recipes for activities with children.

Children's Museum of Bozeman

The Children’s Museum of Bozeman is seeking support to pilot an exhibit development partnership with Bozeman High School. In 2014, CMB will engage with 8 students and 2 academic mentors at BHS to conceive and fabricate an initial exhibit. In future years, the Exhibit Design Partnership will grow into a formal and continuing partnership with students across all grades and academic departments at regional high schools, and will engage more than 100 students and academic mentors in Bozeman, Belgrade and Big Sky to design and develop exhibits, installations, and museum programs annually.

The Partnership’s pilot exhibit has been designed by a group of 11th graders and celebrates the life and times of Harriet Jacobs, a young girl born into slavery whose autobiography is part of the BHS’s AP American History curriculum. The Harriet Jacobs exhibit will be installed at CMB in May and will run for three months.

Community Health Partners

Access to health care is only one part of improving health. Health is also largely influenced by social and economic opportunities available in our homes, neighborhoods and communities. According to the 2012 Affordable Housing Needs Assessment for the City of Bozeman, “The total number of homeless family members (as opposed to homeless individuals) nearly doubled from 43 in 2006 to 78 in 2011. The total number of homeless people captured in the count has increased from 121 in 2006 to 181 in 2011. Homeless service providers report several patterns among homeless family populations: including high levels of substance abuse, mental illness and chronic medical problems”

Community Health Partners utilizes enabling funds for the short-term emergency needs of those served by the organization. CHP awards these funds to patients in the form of gas cards and taxi services for vital travel to medical appointments, financial assistance for emergent pharmaceuticals, and temporary housing.

Community Mediation Center

We will begin conducting a study in the low-income family mediation program starting February 2014. We are interested in learning if parent participation in an online pre-mediation training program will improve mediation success and agreement compliance. Parents may gain information and skills from the online program to use during the mediation process that may help them have a more successful mediation. The online program may potentially be used as a resource for any parent nationwide going through the mediation process.

Eagle Mount - Bozeman

Research shows that family recreation contributes significantly to positive family outcomes, playing a vital role in the development of family health, functioning, and strength. Family members who often recreate together report higher levels of happiness, healthy functioning, and increased interaction. Eagle Mount provides people with disabilities and their families a place in Bozeman where they can recreate together, have fun, learn and grow in a fully inclusive environment. We have asked the Bozeman Area Community Foundation to partner with Eagle Mount to help us provide a free weekly Family Swim time for our participants and their immediate families. A free weekly Family Swim class would open up the opportunity to families that are already struggling with financial resources utilize this program and increase their family recreation time together.

Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture

With assistance from the Bozeman Area Community Foundation, we will be able to move and install a utility sink in a main floor classroom on the north side of the West Wing. This classroom will be home to many of the class offerings in our education program and serve as studio space for our Schools in the Gallery program. The north light exposure desired by artists, the cooler temperatures of the north side, and increased accessibility will provide hundreds of youth and adult students with a creative atmosphere conducive to learning, exploration and self-discovery.

This year we celebrate our twentieth year of keeping the arts alive and vibrant in the community—a community that starts within our walls and extends well beyond them. Our mission to serve as a primary resource for the arts, arts education and cultural activities in southwest Montana is directly reflected in this proposal by providing a functional and supportive space that fosters lifelong learning. Last year almost 700 students from local and statewide schools, day cares, and educational participated in our Schools in the Gallery program. To complement their gallery visit most of these utilized our classroom. Projects in the classroom ranged from creating cardboard creatures inspired by Keith Goodhart’s whimsical “contraptions” to making individual prints. By moving our classroom to the ground level we will be able to serve every student that visits the Emerson.

Gallatin Valley Farm to School

The Summer Lunch Program is a summer feeding program managed by the Gallatin Valley Food Bank to ensure that school-aged children receive adequate access to nutritious food free-of-charge when school is not in session. For the past three years, Gallatin Valley Farm to School (GVF2S) volunteers and staff, have led participating children at three Summer Lunch Program sites in activities such as making butter, planting a bucket garden, and exploring B.O.B.– a mobile greenhouse bus created by the Bozeman Youth Initiative. The purpose of the activities is to provide children with active, fun, and educational food and agriculture experiences. These activities help us achieve our mission of connecting children to farmers in the Gallatin Valley. Through experiences such as learning about farm animals in-person, we are helping children think critically about their food system. Activities like bucket or milk-carton gardens encourage increased consumption of fresh produce, and ultimately building life-long healthy eating habits. Our activities at the Summer Lunch Program sites have continued to be well received by the community and the Gallatin Valley Food Bank.

This year, we will enhance these activities by increasing staff availability and implementing new activities. Funding from Bozeman Area Community Foundation will allow us to reach more students and families, and provide a more valuable educational experience. We will draw upon new curriculum resources and our relationships with local producers to develop new, engaging experiences.

Gallatin Valley Land Trust

GVLT is launching an initiative to expand Bozeman Pond by more than 50% onto vacant land to the north. In partnership with HAVEN, this project will create a flagship community park to serve a densely populated, fast-growing quadrant of town, and a new facility for HAVEN to increase their capacity and provide state of the art services to victims of intimate partner and family violence. GVLT has received approval from the City of Bozeman to use funding from the Trails, Open Space and Parks Bond, approved by 73% of the voters in 2012, to acquire and improve the parkland. Matching funds from community partners will assist with park improvements. GVLT will work with the City of Bozeman through a master planning process to determine the final layout of the park and will hopefully begin work in the summer of 2014. Proposed improvements include natural areas, paved and natural surface trails, stream enhancements, picnic facilities and a natural playground.

Gallatin Valley YMCA

The goal of our summer day camp is to bridge the gap in summer learning loss in Gallatin County by providing high quality, educational summer programs to school-age children. At the Y we believe that lasting personal and social change can only come about when we all work together to invest in our kids. Therefore, we value the strength of strategic collaborations. The Bozeman and Belgrade public schools support our curriculum development, by reviewing our curriculum and advising us to ensure it aligns with their schools goals. They have also developed a system for us to access Y camper test scores in both the Spring and Fall to track the progress we are seeing with the campers attending our camps. The Bozeman Public Library is also working with us to provide appropriate books and materials to support the weekly curriculum. The funds requested in this grant, will help fund learning materials necessary to enhance our current successful summer day camp program.

HAVEN

HAVEN is seeking funding in order to meet the growing need for free, individual counseling to victims of domestic abuse in the Bozeman area. HAVEN has been providing services to victims of domestic abuse in Gallatin County for over 34 years and will continue to do so for a long as funding and resources are available. While in shelter, victims are given the necessary support and guidance to rebuild their lives, including access to free, professional counseling. Currently, there are no other agencies in the Gallatin County providing direct support for victims of domestic abuse. HAVEN provides free, confidential counseling to all clients, on a first come, first serve basis. Counseling sessions are one on one and can be 60 to 90 minutes long. In Fiscal Year 2012-2013, HAVEN’s counselors served 38 clients. To meet an increasing need for counseling in the past year, HAVEN hired a second contracted counselor as well as one counseling intern.

Human Resource Development Council, IX

The Ready to Rent program is the newest educational tool being implemented by HRDC’s Housing Department to support both tenants and landlords in building strong successful relationships and building stronger communities in the Bozeman area. The purpose of this program is to give renters the information and skills to become better communicators, renters, neighbors and community citizens. By utilizing and established tenant education curriculum, the Ready to Rent program can be put immediately to work in our community by implementing a curriculum that supports sustainable rental experiences by providing participants with the tools and skills to be more successful renters, overcome rental barriers, improves landlord communication, increase budgeting efforts and better understand lease agreements and tenant/landlord responsibilities. This new program is hoping to become an established sustainable community service through community partnerships.

Kaleidoscope Theater

In 2011 Kaleidoscope Youth Theater moved. For the last three years programs have continued to grow. The first year, KYT student involvement nearly doubled, and student participation continues grow so much that sometimes the theater space shrinks because of the amount of students filling the multiple classrooms. Each year the theater not only continues to grow with classroom, camp and show sizes, but also with program opportunities. For example KYT added four new after school classes to equal 14 different class opportunities for student’s K-12. Not only has KYT’s number of students expanded, but outreach to the community as well. With an average of 60 audience members per show, the theater is not only able to grow kids through theater, but also the Bozeman community. With growth comes additional demands. Not only demand for qualified staff to teach students, but also in program costs including all the things it takes to run not just a professional theater, but an educational program. Kaleidoscope Youth Theater believes in growing people, not actors, by providing them with exceptional theater training and instilling students with valuable lifelong skills such as confidence, independence, responsibility, and mentorship.

Reach Inc.

All of our staff are trained in CPR/First Aid, including use of an AED in order to keep our clients and staff safe in the event of a cardiac emergency. Currently, the trainer AED that we use in class and the two AEDs that we already have are exactly like the ZOLL AED Plus that we want to purchase. This would provide consistency for staff. This AED also provides verbal feedback during an emergency, telling the responder, step by step, what to do and suggesting improvements (for example, if someone isn’t doing the chest compressions deep enough). Just as we have fire extinguishers in every facility, we would also like to have AEDs in every facility. We hope to have a new AED by the end of 2014 to be placed in a group home with clients who are at high risk for medical emergency. Reach’s mission is to empower the adults with disabilities whom we serve to attain their individual goals and aspirations. Our mission begins with providing a safe home with staff who are well-trained in emergency response AND have the tools to respond efficiently and effectively in an emergency.

Run Dog Run

On December 2, 2013, the Bozeman City Commission voted unanimously to purchase 9 acres of land to expand the Bozeman Pond Park (Fowler Ave. between Huffine and Babcock) by 54%. Run Dog Run partnered with GVLT and Haven to champion the proposal. The plan for the park expansion includes a 3-acre off-leash dog park which Run Dog Run will construct. The park will be fully-fenced, including a separate area for small dogs and puppies, and will contain 5 waste stations, a toy chest and a “chill zone” shade / bench area.

We are applying for project funds to help us install what we are calling the “Chill Zone” which allows dogs and owners to relax in the shade after exercising on a hot day. The Chill Zone will contain 8 fast-growing shade trees (Canada Red Cherry Trees, Spring Snow Crabapples, Aspens, etc.) and three park benches. This will encourage socialization among dogs and owner, which also helps create “community.” This project helps further Run Dog Run’s mission of advocating for additional off-leash facilities in the Bozeman area – as well as promoting responsible dog ownership practices in the community.

Sage Gardeners

Sage Gardeners provides horticultural therapy and accessible organic vegetable gardens to disadvantaged seniors in Gallatin County, MT. We hope to improve quality of life and food security for seniors in our community. Within our three program areas: Retirement Community, Private Residence, and Maintenance, Retirement Community has many projects under its umbrella. Legion Villa falls into this category. Legion Villa is senior low income housing (apartments) that is currently void of any outdoor gardening space. Sage Gardeners would like to implement a gardening program that will provide Legion Villa with multiple raised organic vegetable gardens and horticultural therapy services such as weekly presentations and hands-on interactions through the gardening season. This will include annual as-needed maintenance.

Share of Gallatin Valley Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, Inc.

We are requesting funds for the most crucial aspect of our support: our volunteer Peer Companion program. Peer Companion parents have personally experienced pregnancy or infant loss. Labor and Delivery and Spiritual Care staff contact them whenever a patient suffers a pregnancy loss, a stillbirth, or an infant death. They provide immediate support for newly bereaved families by helping them with mourning, gathering mementos of their baby, providing information, and listening. Grief over the loss of a pregnancy or baby can prove especially lonely because the community never meets this lost child who nevertheless remains important to the parent(s).

Peer Companion volunteers also offer advice on issues such as how to talk to older siblings about the loss, how to handle thoughtless loved ones, how to cope with guilty feelings, and how to nurture a marriage through loss, among many others. They offer an empathy based upon experiences they share in common with the bereaved parents who come to them. Share of Gallatin Valley also offers an annual community gathering and monthly parent group, but Peer Companions are the first line of support, especially at the most traumatic early moments of discovering the loss and delivering the baby. Grief is very individual, so not every parent will feel inclined to attend a support group or community event. If so, they can find individual care from a Peer Companion in a private setting. The Share Peer Companion program enhances the quality of life in our community by strengthening the bonds between parents, between parents and their children, and between families with similar losses. We contribute to the mental and emotional well-being of our community by providing an outlet for healthy mourning and healing.

Thrive

Thrive’s Girls on the Run (GOTR) project is an evidenced-based curriculum using running to inspire girls, encourage lifelong health and fitness, and build confidence through accomplishment. GOTR expands our effective and established Girls for a Change empowerment program, to reach impressionable “tweens” (grades 3rd-5th).

Thrive is the only organization in the state providing GOTR programming. The project, piloted in Belgrade Intermediate School in fall of 2012, and has grown quickly in response to the enthusiastic reaction of students, parents, schools and the larger community. The 15-girl sessions fill up within days, community members are eager to volunteer as coaches and running buddies, and local business are interested in sponsoring. Plans are in place to offer six sessions in Bozeman and Belgrade during 2014. Bozeman Area Community Foundation Support would allow us to continue to build this powerful prevention programming for girls in our area.

Additional Funds: The Bozeman Area Community Foundation helps community members learn about opportunities to give in the community and how they can make the greatest impact with their time, talent, and resources. As part of this, the Foundation manages donor-advised funds and endowments for local organizations. Combined, these managed funds contributed an additional $13,650 to the following nonprofits:

Our Mission

Bozeman Area Community Foundation’s mission is to strengthen communities and inspire greater giving by
investing charitable assets for today and tomorrow; connecting donors with effective organizations, ideas, and causes that matter; and leading and collaborating on important public issues. Read more »